Kickstarter: A First-of-its-Kind eSports Bar & Gaming Arena Wants to Open in the Silicon Valley; 10 Days Left to Fund

AFK Gamer Lounge is a video game LAN center & bar concept currently on Kickstarter which will redefine what social gaming means. There are 10 Days remaining for this project.

AFK Gamer Lounge

AFK will be a real-world hub for eSports and a social gaming paradise.

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) May 29, 2014

Kickstarter: eSports Tries to Move into the Real World with Ambitious LAN & Bar Concept

AFK Gamer Lounge launched a Kickstarter on May 7 to open an eSports bar & LAN center in the Silicon Valley. AFK will be a real-world hub for eSports and a social gaming paradise geared toward the large and growing population of adult gamers. The project already has a 15,000 sq ft building, a strong team, some investment, and is looking to raise $50,000 for equipment purchases. The Kickstarter also encourages backers to exceed the initial goal through a unique Kickstarter mini-game that allows backers to “level-up” features of the bar, LAN, or lounge using “experience points” gained from pledging.

The Social Needs of the Adult Gamer

“Adult gamers are the largest, most important market you have not heard of…yet. According to the Entertainment Software Association (theesa.com), 71% of gamers are age 18 and the average age of gamers is 31 years old. To millions of adults, gaming is their preferred entertainment activity, however, it keeps them tethered to their desks and sofas at home. Adult gamers yearn for a real-world social experience, but have had nowhere to go. We want to build AFK to be the home of social gaming.” – Kevin Wick, Co-Founder of AFK

Features of AFK

AFK expands upon the traditional LAN center by adding an eSports bar and lounge. The eSports bar resembles a traditional sports bar atmosphere, however, instead of traditional sports on the TVs, professionally played video games are streamed from the Internet. The lounge is a large, open area dedicated to the community; here: everything from guild meetups to viewing parties.

Additional features include:

Main Stage: For live shows and exhibition matches

Private Team Rooms: Teams will practice here, similar to a traditional athlete’s gym

NACL Broadcast Center: Our partners at the North American Challenger League will do ESPN-style broadcasting from their broadcast center at AFK

Why Downtown San Jose?

With easy access to multiple freeways, extensive parking and multiple public transit options, Downtown San Jose is one of the fastest growing urban entertainment centers in the Bay Area. The AFK facility is slated to open one block from the San Jose Convention Center, home to multiple tech and gaming culture conferences every year: the Nvidia GPU Conference, Creative Convergence Silicon Valley, and Fanime Convention, just to name a few.

Unique Kickstarter Prizes & The “Level Up AFK” Mini-game

The AFK Kickstarter features a number of never-before-done incentives for backing the project. Pledge packages range from playing a 1 versus 1 match in any video game against an AFK founder at the low end, to a stately portrait of the backer in a golden frame hanging on the wall in AFK.
In addition, every pledge package comes with “experience points” (XP) which allow backers to collectively “level up” AFK’s features. This “level up” mini-game was designed to make the Kickstarter more fun, as well as involve backers in deciding how AFK will look and feel.